Polocaine News

FRIDAY, April 7, 2017 – If you have surgery on your calendar, don't wait until the last minute to start preparing, especially if you're going to need anesthesia. The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists says you're more likely to avoid complications if you follow these five tips: Stop taking unnecessary medications. Only use necessary, approved prescriptions ahead of time. If you have had or currently have a problem with alcohol or drug abuse, tell the anesthesiologist. He or she will need to consider possible drug interactions that could affect your safety during and after surgery. Halt herbal supplements. Discontinue using alternative medicines at least two weeks prior to surgery. Some herbal products can cause complications during and after surgery, such as dangerously high or low blood pressure. Disclose your family medical history. Tell your anesthesiologist about any ... Read more

TUESDAY, Jan. 17, 2017 – Patients using specialists outside their health-plan network often receive surprise bills for services that cost far more than what Medicare considers a fair rate, a new study suggests. Most insurers use rates set by Medicare – the publicly funded insurance program for the elderly – as the benchmark for what they'll pay health care providers. But a look at 400,000 U.S. physicians' charges found many doctors bill their private-paying patients two, three, even six times more than what Medicare pays for the same services, the study revealed. The highest markups – four or more times greater than the Medicare rate – were for certain specialty services, including anesthesiology, interventional radiology, emergency medicine and pathology. Anesthesiologists had the highest markup, charging six times what Medicare considers a reasonable amount, the researchers ... Read more

TUESDAY, June 7, 2016 – General anesthesia doesn't seem to harm young children's mental development, new research concludes. "A number of animal studies have suggested that exposure to commonly used anesthetic agents in early development could lead to deficits in learning, memory, attention and other cognitive functions," said study author Dr. Lena Sun. She is a professor of pediatric anesthesiology and pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. "However, few clinical studies have adequately addressed whether this is also true in humans," Sun said in a Columbia news release. The new study findings are "good news for parents whose children need anesthesia for elective surgery or a diagnostic procedure," she added. Still, the study leaves some important questions unanswered, Sun said. "We need to take a closer look at the effect of anesthesia on cognitive function ... Read more

THURSDAY, May 14, 2015 – New research suggests infants may recover better after some kinds of surgery if they receive local anesthesia – which only numbs part of the body – instead of being "knocked out" completely with general anesthesia. Young patients who had local anesthesia were less likely to suffer from disrupted breathing following hernia surgery, the study found. "Our research provides the strongest evidence to date on how babies should have anesthesia for hernia repair, the most common procedure among infants," said lead author Dr. Andrew Davidson, an associate professor at Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. "We found that spinal [local] anesthesia is safer than general anesthesia," Davidson explained in a news release from the American Society of Anesthesiologists. There's long been uncertainty about the use of general anesthesia in infants and toddlers. ... Read more

TUESDAY, Oct. 14 2014 – The risks of using epidural and spinal anesthesia during childbirth are extremely low, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed data from more than 80,000 women who received epidural or spinal anesthesia during childbirth and found that the overall rate of complications was just under 3 percent. The most common complications involved medications, including receiving too much or too little anesthesia, or being given unintended or expired medications. The fear of "spinal headache" is common among women about to receive epidural or spinal anesthesia, but this complication – formally known as a post-dural puncture headache – occurred in only 0.2 percent of patients, according to the study. The findings are scheduled for presentation Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists in New Orleans. "The rates of complications are ... Read more

TUESDAY, March 5 – In the first stage of labor, a combined spinal-epidural technique provides faster and better pain relief compared to traditional epidural pain relief, a new study suggests. The research included 800 healthy women who required pain relief during childbirth, and who were divided into two groups. One group received standard epidural pain relief, which involves injections of local anesthetic and pain medications into the epidural space, inside the membranes covering the spinal cord. The other group received the combination approach, which starts with medications injected into the intrathecal space, the deeper space directly around the spinal cord, before using an epidural injection. After the initial epidural or intrathecal injections, both groups received patient-controlled epidural analgesia. The effectiveness of pain relief, rated on a 0-to-10 scale, was compared at ... Read more

TUESDAY, June 14 – Certain surgeries that typically require the use of general anesthesia could be safely performed with localized anesthesia in combination with hypnosis, Belgian researchers suggest. The finding stems from a pair of very small case-control studies that explored the combo's potential during surgical procedures performed for breast cancer patients and thyroid patients, respectively. The studies revealed that, relative to general anesthesia, the local anesthesia/hypnosis approach sped up the healing process, reduced the need for post-surgery opioid drugs and reduced hospitalization time. "There is still a lot of debate around the exact mechanism that allows hypnosis to reduce pain perception," said study author and professor Fabienne Roelants in a European Anaesthesiology Congress news release, "but what is absolutely clear is that it does so." She and her colleague ... Read more